So we've been taking Alvin to a local park to work on recall and basic leash training for the past few days. He's been doing great, he still tries to meet people and dogs walking by but speeding up snaps him out of it. yesterday we were taking a break playing fetch on a long lead and this woman was letting her dog pull her towards us. They were coming from behind us so Alvin hadn't seen them and it looked like they were going pass us so I ignored them. All of a sudden this woman's dog comes out of nowhere 10 feet from us on the right. Still pulling still barking. Alvin put himself between the dog and I and let out the deepest barks I've ever heard out of him. Luckily I had him held close to me. His fur was raised, ears up, tail straight. This dog had 40lbs on Alvin and he was not backing up. I told the woman we were training so we couldn't really socialize right then but she KEPT LETTING THE DOG COME CLOSER. I got up and put myself in a position where I could keep Alvin behind me and got ready to get out of there. She said "sometimes we make make friends sometimes we don't" and she kept talking about how deep Alvin's bark was and just small talk. I had to be rude and told her to please keep her dog back and she rolled her eyes and drug the dog away. I drew pictures of the situation.

We have taken every measure possible to NOT make a nervous dog. Alvin did not look afraid or nervous. Could he be being protective? The dog was full blown hyper and lunging HARD.

Alvin has met other dogs big and small and behaves with them. We only let him play with calm dogs though, so I have no clue what was the reason behind his barking.

Please don't just say "remove your dog from the situation" we were in the process of doing this. it all happened really quickly. I want constructive advice on WHY he could be acting like this. Alvin is 12 weeks old

I love those pictures! And I want to point out a flaw in your thinking: you were not "rude" at all, you were conveying to this woman to get the heck away from you in a very polite manner. Much more polite than many here would be, lol. Alvin is a puppy and puppies do these kinds of things. He might have wanted to play? But you did everything right!

I would highly suggest that you remove the dog from the situation....okay couldn't help myself and you were just begging to hear that....LOL

Okay, here are some cookie cutter possibilities from a web site. I like the first three......

German Shepherd Aggression

German Shepherd aggression can have various causes, as we discuss below. But whatever the cause of the German Shepherd aggression, you need to address it now straight away or it may soon become both scary for you and others, as well as dangerous.Causes of German Shepherd aggression

There are many potential causes of aggressive behaviour in a German Shepherd:

Your GSD may not yet have accepted you as the alpha leader in the pack

Your GSD may feel threatened if you or someone else is sometimes intruding its territory in a disrespectful way

The aggression could lead back to an attack by another dog or by any person during the dog’s life

Dog aggression may result from a mistake made with the puppy

Dog aggression could be triggered by heredity and genetics

Most of the time however aggressive behaviour in German Shepherds is down to stress and fear

I love those pictures! And I want to point out a flaw in your thinking: you were not "rude" at all, you were conveying to this woman to get the heck away from you in a very polite manner. Much more polite than many here would be, lol. Alvin is a puppy and puppies do these kinds of things. He might have wanted to play? But you did everything right!

This! And yes you did everything correctly! Your job is to protect your job and that's what you did. Your not going to get any flack here for doing your job!

Alvin let you know that an unbalanced out of control dog was approaching and you handled it!
Job well done.

dog park is the worst place possible to take a pup for a training session --- because you meet these "entitled" people .

take an air horn , blast away , draw attention to the person , they'll scamper away fast out of embarrassment

" we were training so we couldn't really socialize right then " believe me that dog wasn't in the friendly socializing mode -- too polite --- but you did the right thing
yell at the top of your lungs - "control your dog"

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Carmen

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